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Endangered won’t be released until October 1st, but I am publishing this early so that you can place your pre-orders now. Endangered was hands-down the best book I read this summer. I read it straight through, in the middle of the night, because I could not put it down. The book made it’s way to the top of my TBR pile after I tweeted a request for realistic YA with a focus on science. When a few Twitter pals recommended Eliot Schrefer’s upcoming book I remembered seeing a few mentions of the book at BEA back in May. The ARC quickly climbed to the top of my TBR pile and I am very glad it did. Like I said, it was my favorite book of the summer!

For those of you who don’t know me in real life, I am a science girl. I went to a pre-engineering and science high school and spent my first year of college struggling to decide between English and biology as a major. I was a part of Project SUPER during my freshman year in college, which “is an enrichment program for undergraduate women interested in pursuing the sciences, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.” We visited labs all over campus, met with mentors, and participated in research. In the end, I became an education major with a double major in English. However, I am still a science girl at heart. All you have to do is look at my involvement with the Monarch Teacher Network to know that!

Back on the subject of Endangered. Books about animals, with a focus on biology or conservation, are my bread and butter. For some reason, there is a severe lack of these books in YA. (Other than dystopian, science fiction books). But Endangered is the book to beat all books in the genre! It’s real, it’s gritty, and it will break your heart. But the best part is the science is all real and the desperate need for conservation is all too real in a part of the world that often can’t feed it’s people, let along focus on the innocent creatures surrounding them.

Endangered is the truly exceptional story of Sophie, a teenage girl whose mother runs a bonobo sanctuary in Congo. Bonobos are our closest relatives (we share 98% of our DNA, more than chimps) and they are surprisingly human-like. However, they live in the war-torn Congo and are in danger of becoming the first great apes to become extinct under our watch. Sophie’s mother works alongside the government to raise orphaned bonobos in order to release them into the wild later in life. But when Sophie personally rescues Otto, an orphaned bonobo, she becomes attached to him.

But Sophie and Otto’s lives are in danger when a coup threatens the stability of the country. Sophie and Otto are forced to flee into the jungle in order to survive and they must make their way to safety. Together, alongside some of the surviving bonobos from the sanctuary, they must fight to stay alive amidst revolution and chaos.

I can not recommend this book enough. However, be aware that it is a war story, and thus I would recommend it for high school readers and not those in middle school. It’s also full of facts that are woven seamlessly into the narrative. I’d love to have my students read this as we study imperialism in Africa. It’s a natural ladder to (and even from) Achebe and Adichi’s works. Endangered is a tale of survival amid violence and Schrefer doesn’t shy away from the gory details at times. And because those details sometimes involve mistreated animals, I found it hard to read at times. However, I also could not stop reading. And that’s the magic of Endangered.

I finished the book a few weeks ago and it’s still on my mind. I immediately passed it on to my co-worker who teaches biology. I plan to place it on my list of recommended summer reads next year. And I can’t wait to booktalk to my students. It’s the perfect mix of humanity, history, biology, conservation, compassion, the human condition, and current events. I find myself still researching bonobos as I type this!

Highly, highly recommended. And I fully expect to hear this title brought up in many awards conversations.

(Eliot Schrefer will be presenting at NCTE in November. I know I can’t wait to be a part of that audience!)

5 Responses

Definitely putting this on my list to check out for my library. But another sentence caught my attention…which of Adichie’s books do you use with your HS students? I’m looking to expand my World Literature – Africa offerings and Adichie is one of the authors I’m contemplating adding. Recommendations?